Picture this it is Tuesday eighth of July Mid year payroll hot office hot tempers Hazel, our well being officer, is parked by my chair, giving me the eyebrow. Ping. I have had an offer. If you can match it, I will stay. Ping again. Can we chat pay? I have heard things. Here is the real question. Does a quick raise keep one person? Or does it light a fuse with everyone else? Kettle on. Cake out. Let us sort fair pay from favouritism, simply and calmly. Welcome. Hello, I am Kate. This is Buzzing About HR. UK only, plain English. No fluff. If you run a small business or you are the HR team of one, you are in the right place. Hazel is on Biscuit-based quality control. Today we are talking about fair pay and counter-offers. How to keep people without breaking trust, budgets, or the law. Part one. What July really feels like. By July, you have done the April rises. People are on holiday. Cover is tight. Competitors whisper, one pound more an hour, every other Friday off. Managers panic. Finance says hold the line. You are in the middle, trying to be fair and keep the place running. Two truths. Counter-offers are not evil. If you wing them, they turn into stories about favorites. Those stories do not die. The quiet ones start looking elsewhere. Part two. Why quick raises bite back. A fast yes feels easy, then it bites. The gap between new starters and team leads can vanish. That is where resentment lives. You can create a pay gap between men and women doing the same or similar work. That is risk. You start a chain reaction. If I threaten to leave, do I get a raise too? Hazel's rule if you only feed the squeaky dog, the quiet ones start digging. Same with pay. Part three. The law in plain English. Equal pay in the UK is simple at heart. Men and women must be paid the same for the same work, similar work, or work of equal value. If you pay people differently, you need a solid reason that is not about sex. You must be able to explain it. You must be able to prove it. Two lessons from real cases. People can compare pay across sites if you set terms centrally. Market rate on its own is not enough. You need evidence, not vibes. Timing matters too. Equal pay claims can still arrive after someone leaves. Do not sit on problems. Fix what you can now. Part 4. Your simple pay decision. Flow. Pause. Thank them for raising it. Say you will review and come back by Friday. Check the legal floor. Make sure they are at or above the current minimum. If not, fix that first. Name the reason. Is this to stop them leaving? Has the whole role slipped behind the market? Have they clearly stepped up a level? Are they covering extra duties for a while? Look left and right. Check two or three people in the same role. Same site if you can. Note skill, service, performance, spot the risk. Would this create or widen a pay gap between men and women in the same or similar roles? If yes, rethink. Pick the right tool. Keep them. Use a time-limited retention payment with a review date. The market moved. Lift the rate for the role and bring others with it if they meet the same bar. They stepped up. Give a progression increase with clear expectations. Temporary cover. Add a responsibility allowance with start and stop dates. Write half a page. Why now? Which tool? Rough cost compared with losing them. How does it fit your approach? Decide the same way every time. If you make an exception, write down why. Explain it like you mean it to the person. The decision, the reason, the review, date to managers. The principle, so they do not promise the moon next time. File it and set a reminder. Keep the notes. Book a three to six month review. Once a quarter, scan the team for fairness. Boring, repeatable, safe. That is the aim. Part five. Mini dramas and quick fixes. The counter offer spiral. We matched her offer. She is staying, so I have to threaten to leave to be valued. Fix. Use rare, time bound retention payments. If the roll rate has moved, move the roll rate and bring others who meet the same mark. The market says so. Excuse. Engineers are scarce. That is why the men earn more. Fix. Scarcity can be a factor, but prove it. Check the impact on women in the same roles. If it lands unevenly, pick another route. The secret bump. Let us quietly bump just this one. Then three more ask tomorrow. Fix. If the job value has changed, change the job rate and explain it. Daylight. Beats. Rumour. The kind but messy thank you. You hand out random thank you money to the loudest voices. Fix. Swap to a small recognition scheme with simple rules, modest amounts, and a monthly roundup. The compression crunch. Your team lead is only 20 pence an hour above a new starter. Fix. Either lift the lead rate or redraw duties so the difference makes sense. Explain the why. Part six. Scripts you can lift. Thanks for telling me. I will check your pay against the roll and others doing the same work and come back by Friday. We do not match external offers by default. If the roll rate has moved, we will move it for everyone who meets the same level. This is a step-up increase because you now run X and Y. We will review Z in three months. You will get a temporary allowance while you cover. If it becomes permanent, we will adjust your base pay. Short. Sideways comments like must be nice to be on the special list. More pay questions from one team than anywhere else. Team leads are grumpy because their gap has vanished. Lots of quiet chats after every rumor. Steady mid-performers are handing in notice first. If you see two or more, review the roll rate. Do not just feed the squeaky wheel. Part eight. Quick maths before you say yes. Write two numbers on a sticky note. If they leave, ads or agency, over time to cover, slower output while a new starter learns. Manager time. If they stay. The raise. Any knock on the lift you must make for fairness. The message it sends. Sometimes matching is cheaper. Sometimes a tidy note now with a clear path and a date protects the whole team. Pick. Do not drift. Part nine. Real life examples. Keep them without chaos. Jess has an offer, solid performer, not a unicorn. You give a three-month retention payment with a review date. You say we are reviewing the roll rate this quarter. If it moves, it moves for everyone who meets the bar. Managers get a note. Retention payments are rare and time limited. Market moved for the roll. Warehouse pickers are scarce. You lift the job rate by forty pence. Everyone meeting the standard moves to the new rate. You publish one clear line on why. Recruitment and retention. Market shift. Same role, same rate. They have grown the job. D trains new starters and runs the rotor two days a week. You bump base pay as a step up and set three clear expectations. You book a three-month review for the last piece. Temporary cover. Sam covers a supervisor's leave for eight weeks. You add a temporary allowance with dates. When the supervisor returns, the allowance stops clean. Part 10. Listener Q and A, can I give one person a raise and not the others? Yes. If it does not create a pay gap between men and women doing the same or similar work, and if you can explain the reason, write it down. Do people have to be in the same building to compare pay? Number. If you set pay centrally, people can compare across sites. Do I need a fancy job evaluation? Number. Simple pay ranges with a few levels are fine if you use them the same way. Every time. Is the market rate a good enough reason? Only if you can show evidence and it does not land unfairly, keep the evidence fresh. We raised everyone in April. Why are people still unhappy? Pay compression. When the bottom rises, the first layer up feels squeezed. Check the gap and the duties. Should we publish everyone's exact pay? You do not have to. Clear ranges and clear reasons do most of the trust building. What if we genuinely cannot afford raises? Say it straight. Give a path. What needs to change when you review? Then keep the date. Part eleven. Your Dunext list. Map each role to a simple pay range with a few levels. Before any raise, check two or three people doing the same work. Use the right tool. Retention payment, job rate move, step-up increase or temporary allowance. Write half a page for every decision. Put review dates in the diary and keep them. Once a quarter, scan for fairness, especially between men and women in the same roles. Give managers three approved lines and stop the freelance promises. If this feels like admin, you are right. It is. There is affordable software that handles requests, notes, and approvals, so you are not living in spreadsheets. Book a discovery call. I will help you pick something that gives you hours back. Hazel says the biscuit budget stays ring fenced. Back to our opening scene, hot office, hot spreadsheet. Hazel with a strong side eye. We save one person with a quick raise. Then we spend a week answering, what about me? Fair pay is not magic. It is a few simple habits. Do them the same way every time. Daylight beats rumour, structure beats panic. Cake helps. There is a Pay Fairness Starter kit in the show notes. Pay range template. Three manager scripts you can read out loud. If you want me to sanity check a tricky case, pressure test your ranges, or set up the text so this runs itself, book a discovery call. Fixed price. No faff. Real fixes. I am Kate. This is Buzzing About HR. Kettle On. Standards Up. See you next time.